Bomb Busters

The base game supports 2–5 cooperating players. Two players use two stands each; with three, only the Captain has two; with four or five, everyone has one. Deal and sort each stand separately in ascending order from left to right. Both stands together constitute one player’s hand.

Prepare blue, yellow and red wires, the detonator and equipment as directed by the mission. Blue wires normally comprise four copies of each number from 1 to 12, with reductions in novice training. Each player initially places just one Info token identifying one of their blue wires; a yellow token cannot be chosen during setup.

Play clockwise from the Captain. Take a Dual Cut, Solo Cut or Reveal Your Red Wires action. For a Dual Cut, possess the matching wire yourself, point to one hidden wire belonging to a teammate and name its value. A correct identification removes one matching wire from each hand; do not indicate the location of other wires in your own hand.

In an ordinary Dual Cut, identifying a red wire causes immediate failure. A wrong guess targeting blue or yellow advances the detonator one space and marks the target’s actual value with an Info token; reaching the skull causes failure. Mark a blue number as validated once all four copies have been cut.

A Solo Cut removes two or four identical wires only when all remaining uncut wires of that kind are in your own hand. Merely holding a pair or three copies is insufficient. Yellow decimals are used only for sorting during setup; all yellow wires have the same in-game value and can match one another.

Only when every uncut wire in your hand is red may you safely reveal them with the Reveal Your Red Wires action. Players with empty stands are skipped. Emptying every stand wins, subject to the mission’s special conditions.

Equipment unlocks after two wires of its corner number have been cut. Each card is used once and follows its printed timing. Personal character equipment is also once per mission. The Double Detector targets two wires on the same stand: one red target alone does not cause an explosion, but two red targets do. It cannot name yellow.

Communication is restricted: do not describe or hint at your hand, repeat wire information from earlier turns or share specific guesses aloud. General tactics, equipment use and rules may be discussed. Apply any changes printed on the current mission card.